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Between 1959 and 1961, Marine Corps Pvt. Kerry W. Thornley wrote a novel about a fellow Marine who had defected to the USSR. Little did he know that his friend, Lee Harvey Oswald, would later be accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

Through the fictional character Johnny Shellburn, "The Idle Warriors" gives rare insight into the mind of the man who allegedly committed the most infamous crime of the century.

"The Idle Warriors" is the story of a troop of Marines in the Far East - getting laid, pulling pranks, eating, drinking, and talking about life. It’s a story similar to any number of films and books from that time, both in style and content. But because the book was based on Oswald, it remains an eerie novelty, like the appearance of Fidel Castro as an extra in a Busby Berkeley film. Kerry’s introduction itself makes the book well worth reading.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Kerry Thornley was stationed in Japan with Lee Harvey Oswald at one of only two US bases where LSD experiments took place. It's Thornley's contention that the purpose of these experiments was to create "Manchurian Candidates" - assassins on autopilot. This could be dismissed as a paranoid rant, but this book was written before Nov. 22, 1963. Hmmm, maybe that's why it's no longer in print. If you do manage to get your hands on a copy, count yourself among the lucky.